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Metagenomics reveals that Dung Beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeinae) broadly feed on Reptile dung and could feed on that of Dinosaurs

View ORCID ProfileFernando Lopes, View ORCID ProfileMichele Rossini, Federica Losacco, View ORCID ProfileGiulio Montanaro, View ORCID ProfileNicole Gunter, View ORCID ProfileSergei Tarasov
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.12.27.521994
Fernando Lopes
1Finnish Museum of Natural History, Pohjoinen Rautatiekatu 13, FI-00014 Helsinki, Finland
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  • For correspondence: fernando.vieiralopes@helsinki.fi
Michele Rossini
1Finnish Museum of Natural History, Pohjoinen Rautatiekatu 13, FI-00014 Helsinki, Finland
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Federica Losacco
1Finnish Museum of Natural History, Pohjoinen Rautatiekatu 13, FI-00014 Helsinki, Finland
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Giulio Montanaro
1Finnish Museum of Natural History, Pohjoinen Rautatiekatu 13, FI-00014 Helsinki, Finland
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Nicole Gunter
2The Cleveland Museum of Natural History, 1 Wade Oval Drive, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA
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Sergei Tarasov
1Finnish Museum of Natural History, Pohjoinen Rautatiekatu 13, FI-00014 Helsinki, Finland
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ABSTRACT

According to traditional views, the evolution of dung beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeinae) and their feeding habits are largely attributed to mammal dung. In this paper, we challenge this view and provide evidence that many dung beetle communities are actually associated with the dung of reptiles and birds (= Sauropsida). In turn, this indicates that sauropsid dung may have played a crucial evolutionary role that was previously underestimated. We argue that it is physiologically realistic to consider that coprophagy in dung beetles could have evolved during the Cretaceous in response to the massive amount of dung produced by dinosaurs. Furthermore, we demonstrate that sauropsid dung may be one of the major factors driving the emergence of insular dung beetle communities across the globe. We support our findings with amplicon-metagenomic analyses, trapping experiments, and meta-analysis of the published literature.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Footnotes

  • https://osf.io/jh3am/

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
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Posted December 27, 2022.
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Metagenomics reveals that Dung Beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeinae) broadly feed on Reptile dung and could feed on that of Dinosaurs
Fernando Lopes, Michele Rossini, Federica Losacco, Giulio Montanaro, Nicole Gunter, Sergei Tarasov
bioRxiv 2022.12.27.521994; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.12.27.521994
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Metagenomics reveals that Dung Beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeinae) broadly feed on Reptile dung and could feed on that of Dinosaurs
Fernando Lopes, Michele Rossini, Federica Losacco, Giulio Montanaro, Nicole Gunter, Sergei Tarasov
bioRxiv 2022.12.27.521994; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.12.27.521994

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